EU sanctions 10 Syrians for ‘recruiting mercenaries’ for Russia

BRUSSELS (AA) – The EU on Thursday added 10 Syrian nationals to its asset freeze and travel ban list for recruiting mercenaries to fight in Ukraine.

The measures came as part of the bloc’s latest “maintenance and alignment package” that complements the previous six sets of sanctions against Russia.

Businessman Issam Shammout, owner of the airline Cham Wings, and several military commanders have been targeted with an asset freeze and travel ban “for recruiting mercenaries for the benefit of Russian forces in Libya and Ukraine.”

The companies Al-Sayyad Company for Guarding and Protection Services and Sanad Protection and Security Services are also blacklisted because they are supervised by Russia’s already sanctioned Wagner Group and are “active in the recruitment of Syrian mercenaries to Libya and Ukraine.”

The new sanctions package also bans the imports of Russian gold and jewelry, and freezes the assets of Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender that has already been excluded from the international SWIFT payment system.

The EU has extended the list of prohibited items to be exported to Russia because they could be used for military purposes.

The package also clarifies some previous measures, allowing, for example, the payment for agricultural products and oil exports to non-EU countries as an exemption under its transaction ban.

The previous packages targeted, among others, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, banned oil and coal imports and the export of luxury goods, as well as excluding Russian and Belarusian banks from the SWIFT system.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​